Sunday, 12 July 2015

Thanks a lot to Keith for his
walk with a theme last Sunday. We discovered that HG Wells accurately used the
geography and road and rail network of Woking and Horsell as the setting for
‘The War of the Worlds’, and the novel describes junctions, canals and railways
and bridges in the sites we can still see today.

We followed a route from the
Martians landing site on Horsell Common to town and back, passing some landmark
sites described in the book, and the Martian sculpture in the town centre. We
also saw the restored 1st World War Muslim cemetery on the common, which has
been transformed from an overgrown collapsing building into a beautiful restful
garden with a lovely water feature. Inexplicably the entrance is boarded up!

We were joined by new walker
Ian, a Horsell resident who used his local knowledge to add an interesting end
to the route through woods and local paths back to the starting point.
The forecast was awful but thankfully it turned out to be perfect walking
weather.